Sweet One For Orange

By MALCOLM MORAN, Special to The New York Times

Published: March 4, 1991

SYRACUSE, March 3—
Five days before the Georgetown Hoyas appeared on the floor of the Carrier Dome at noon today, the Orangemen of Syracuse University secured a fifth regular-season Big East Conference championship, but their very first untouched by Hoya hands, or anyone else's.

When the Hoyas received their annual raucous Syracuse welcome, they were completing the least successful of their 12 Big East seasons. In the orange-tinted minds of the citizens of central New York, these twin circumstances create a giddiness that can only be approached by that caused by the spring thaw.

Not that Syracuse's prior success reduced its 62-58 victory today to a moot point. That will not happen as long as any Orange loyalists remember that night 11 winters ago, the last night in their beloved Manley Field House, when the Hoyas beat the Orangemen and their coach, John Thompson, proclaimed: "Manley Field House is officially closed."

As long as those words live, Orange followers will smile at the thought of a regular season that ended with a Syracuse championship and Georgetown's losing five of its last six games and posting a 12-11 record against Division I opponents. Hoyas Look to UConn

The Hoyas (16-11 over all, 8-8 in conference games) will play from the No. 6 position against No. 3 Connecticut in the final quarterfinal game of the Big East tournament Friday night at Madison Square Garden. Georgetown's previous lowest seeding was fourth, in 1983.

Georgetown, after appearing in 12 consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association tournaments and establishing the fierce competitive standard that contributed to the Big East's rise to prominence, could finish with its fewest victories since its 13-13 record in the 1973-74 season, the second of Thompson's 19 as coach.

Playing before a crowd of 33,048, another N.C.A.A. record for a campus arena -- the fourth record crowd in the last five Hoya appearances here -- Georgetown found encouragement in the forceful play of Alonzo Mourning. Back From an Injury

Mourning, the 6-foot-10-inch forward who missed 9 of 10 games from early December through mid-January with a strained arch in his left foot, led both teams with 24 points and 11 rebounds.

"Physically, Alonzo is fine," Thompson said. "Psychologically, he needed it. One of the objectives I came into this game with was that I was going to be certain that he came out of here with a halfway positive thing before we went down to the Garden. I thought he had to get something out of this. That was very important to me."

"Alonzo came to play today," said Billy Owens, who led the Orangemen with 21 points, including the last 4 Syracuse points of the game. "If he comes to play like that, they can win some games."

Owens made just 5 of 16 shots, including 1 of 8 in the first half. But with the Hoyas within a point, 58-57, Owens positioned himself for a 6-foot jumper. The shot came over Brian Kelly, the designated Hoya villain as the result of a first-half foul of Owens -- from behind, with both arms -- that led to loud boos every time Kelly touched the ball.

After four consecutive Syracuse misses at the foul line, two by Dave Johnson with 40 seconds to go and two by LeRon Ellis with 16 seconds left, Owens's two foul shots with 4.3 seconds remaining created the final margin. No Advice for N.C.A.A.

The result established a small but potentially significant gap in the standings between fifth-seeded Pittsburgh and the sixth-place Hoyas. When asked about being an uncertain candidate for an at-large N.C.A.A. bid, sitting on that often-discussed bubble, Thompson's tone seemed decidedly less self-assured than it was after the loss to St. John's last Monday.

"We have not been concerned about that one time," Thompson said today. "What we're concerned about is being able to play. It's the responsibility of those people, the N.C.A.A., to pick the teams, and I don't think they're going to let me or anybody else tell them to do that. And I don't think it would do any good for me, if we're throwing balls away, to run around here talking about bubbles."

The Hoyas did little talking, particularly after Thompson was done. Eight minutes and 45 seconds from the moment the dressing room had been declared open to the inquisitors, the Hoyas were dressed, packed and on their way home.

Their most secure route to a 13th consecutive N.C.A.A. appearance may require a Big East tournament victory.

"I've never fared well when people's opinions are concerned," John Thompson said with a smile.

Photo: Syracuse's Conrad McRae and Georgetown's Joey Brown fighting for a loose ball in the second half yesterday at Syracuse. (Joe Traver for The New York Times) (pg. C4)